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Power Hungry Big Tech Seeks to Devour American Democracy
Townhall.com ^ | October 27, 2021 | Jeff Brain

Posted on 10/27/2021 5:15:29 AM PDT by Kaslin

Big Tech has a big appetite for power – and it fully intends to devour American democracy.

The recent reporting by The New York Post proves once again that political bias has always been and will always be the driving force behind Big Tech’s actions -- which is precisely why the American people should be wary of any tech giant’s campaign to influence the legislative process in Washington.

For years, social media giants such as Facebook have insisted that their censorship policies stem from good intentions, and that their public advocacy efforts are strictly nonpartisan.

“At Facebook, we took our responsibility to protect the integrity of this selection very seriously,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a congressional hearing last year, later adding that the company’s civic engagement campaign “was done in a transparent and nonpartisan way as part of our ongoing commitment to supporting the civic process.”

Evidently, this declaration of fairness was merely a public relations facade concealing a darker partisan motive to influence American politics.

According to a recent bombshell report fromThe New York Post, Zuckerberg “spent hundreds of millions of dollars to turn out likely Democratic voters” in key swing states in the 2020 presidential election by funding “demonstrably ideological” nonprofit organizations.

In December 2020, the Amistad Project, a national constitutional litigation group that first challenged Zuckerberg’s spending in court, revealedt hat the Facebook CEO donated around $350 million to the left-leaning Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL) -- which went on to unequally distribute the funds in a manner that favored Democratic precincts and turned government election offices into partisan get-out-the-vote centers.

Facebook was not the only tech giant involved in this scheme, either.

As Mollie Hemingway writes in her new book, “Rigged,” Google founder Sergey Brin reportedly suggested “that ‘Jigsaw,’ a project Google had developed to combat Islamic terror propaganda, could be used to shape the opinions of Trump voters.” Hemingway also notes that some employees within the company reportedly formed a coalition to “brainstorm ways to use Google’s resources to undermine the Trump administration.”

Such efforts to undermine our country’s democratic process are a major cause for concern. American voters are eager to learn the full truth about Big Tech’s involvement in the 2020 election, and to digest the findings of numerous ongoing investigations. The problem, however, is that legacy social media platforms have become self-appointed arbiters of truth, heavily suppressing information that might be damaging to their political ambitions.

It might be tempting, therefore, to support extensive federal regulations that would put unprecedented restrictions on the tech sector. But leaving the federal government in charge of reining in Big Tech would be a colossal mistake.

There is a very good reason why Big Tech companies are campaigning in favor of new federal regulations -- it is a laughable slap on the wrist for their unforgivable transgressions, and it actually gives them an advantage over smaller competitors who would be subject to the same rules. The real punishment for companies such as Facebook and Twitter is the rapid rise of powerful competitors -- not some bureaucratic overhaul of the current law.

Companies such as Facebook and Twitter, after all, are desperate to manage public discontent and to redirect the spotlight from their own actions. If federal regulations become the focal point of the public debate about Big Tech, then that would be a clear public relations victory for the tech giants.

Make no mistake, Congress must still consider making changes to Section 230, or at least begin enforcing it as it was written, in order to protect free speech and open discourse online. But we should not be fooled into thinking that these changes constitute a proportional response to Big Tech’s actions.

Social media platforms should serve as the contemporary public square to enable peaceful civic discourse and strive to bring people together. Big Tech companies, however, have repeatedly used the power of social media to divide the American people and to further their own political agenda.

We can no longer hope to fix the broken world of Big Tech by simply passing new laws in Congress. Our responsibility as Americans is to support alternatives to legacy social media platforms, and to build a brand new tech ecosystem that truly champions American values.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: bigtech; facebook; internet; marksugarmountain; section230; socialmedia; technotyranny

1 posted on 10/27/2021 5:15:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Dies Zuckerberg actually think he’s not gonna have a short life and a violent death? And nobody will mourn.


2 posted on 10/27/2021 5:17:46 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (Cornpop was a good dude.)
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To: HYPOCRACY

Does. Dies works too.


3 posted on 10/27/2021 5:18:04 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (Cornpop was a good dude.)
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To: Kaslin

Seems fine by Rand Paul, as long as it’s not government (directly) enslaving the people. After all, he shut down the Section 230 reforms that Republicans were trying to pass just before the 2020 election.


4 posted on 10/27/2021 5:18:39 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: Kaslin

“”And don’t forget that everybody should go here and pre register””

https://www.truthsocial.com/

America desperately needs more conservative media.


5 posted on 10/27/2021 5:22:01 AM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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To: Presbyterian Reporter

Again, there is no guarantee that the operators of the internet backbone or of the cloud services will allow any app developed to access their systems.


6 posted on 10/27/2021 5:24:48 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Kaslin

One major issue overlooked in this article is the fact that goog and fb and the cell phone system function as vacuums gathering information for the usgov.

That drives everything else.


7 posted on 10/27/2021 5:43:24 AM PDT by Chickensoup ( Leftists totalitarian fascists are eradicating conservatives)
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To: Kaslin

So according to the author the best thing is to do nothing.


8 posted on 10/27/2021 6:02:21 AM PDT by pas
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To: Chickensoup

Add credit card transactions, your Kroger card, and bank account transactions.


9 posted on 10/27/2021 6:07:29 AM PDT by Paperpusher
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To: Chickensoup

It doesn’t have to.

Have you considered switching to a Linux phone?

I see a lot of people who talk about these issues of data collection. I don’t see many people take the step to solve the problem.


10 posted on 10/27/2021 6:41:58 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (Public meetings are superior to newspapers)
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To: pas
"So according to the author the best thing is to do nothing."

Did you read the article? He closed with this:

Our responsibility as Americans is to support alternatives...

What are those alternatives? It is true that the author did not specifically detail the names of them, but that has been done before. American Thinker did not too long ago.

The best things to do is get off of Facebook and anything Google.(Including Android) Avoid all Apple and Microsoft products. There are both Linux computers and Linux phones that will set you free. These are the big impact items.

Switching browsers is good but it's largely a feel-good measure. Pretty much all browsers these days are based on Chrome anyways.

11 posted on 10/27/2021 6:51:35 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica (Public meetings are superior to newspapers)
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To: Kaslin
The time has come to strip corporations of their “individual” status and prevent them from making political donations. If a political issue is so important to a corporation the maybe the major investors, the CEO, and the executives can pony up their own money. After that is done it is time to trust-bust all the huge multinational corporations and institute import tariffs to protect the new, smaller corporations from foreign-based corporate behemoths.
12 posted on 10/27/2021 6:57:12 AM PDT by WMarshal ("Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.")
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To: ProgressingAmerica
Have you considered switching to a Linux phone?

Yes - but PinePhone even says on its web site that it is intended for Linux experts and early adopters. For now, it’s more important to use VPN and a secure messaging app like Signal - and consider acquiring a cheap flip phone to take out when engaging in pro-republic activities..

13 posted on 10/27/2021 7:03:37 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Kaslin

here is the link you did not provide

https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffbrain/2021/10/27/power-hungry-big-tech-seeks-to-devour-american-democracy-n2598065


14 posted on 10/27/2021 7:08:45 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: HYPOCRACY

We are still waiting for soros to be called back by satan


15 posted on 10/27/2021 12:30:07 PM PDT by ronnie raygun
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